Uwe Ellinghaus

CMO

Cadillac

As Cadillac’s Chief Marketing Officer, Uwe Ellinghaus has been charged with leading all brand strategy and marketing efforts for Cadillac worldwide.  He joined Cadillac Jan 1, 2014 to further the brand’s ongoing expansion and development and is continuing to change perceptions about the iconic American luxury brand both here and abroad. Cadillac has been pushing its global presence and is partnering with nonautomotive brands such as New York fashion house Public School in an effort to broaden (i.e., lower the age range of) its customer base.

While repositioning an iconic brand is no small undertaking, Uwe has many years of leadership positions with strong luxury brands, including a long background in the luxury automotive space. He joined Cadillac from Montblanc International, where he served as Executive Vice President of Marketing and Sales from late 2012 to 2013. Prior to that, Uwe was with BMW Group in a number of marketing and leadership roles from 1998 – 2012.

Recalling his arrival at Cadillac, Uwe says: "First, what I realized is how passionate Cadillac customers were and are about the brand. This brand is an iconic brand that has still so much appeal to people that  from outside of the U.S., you are sometimes surprised just how cool Cadillac is. But it's also fair to say that we are in a situation where we embarked on a new direction for Cadillac, changed the position of the brand, and went to a territory that was traditionally not associated with Cadillac.  But as much as in communications to get across what Cadillac stands for, what is our point of view, what makes us different from the German competitors. So I want the distinctive design of the exterior and interior to play a prominent role because design is the No. 1 purchase reason for cars in any market and for any brand. But no other brand is so design-dependent in terms of the purchase reason as Cadillac is."